AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

I was going to put this in "Poultry health and well being" but it just didn't seem right somehow.

I would like to know the best way to kill a chook. (We touched on this slightly in another thread re hens that no longer lay). I have never done this before but as I have cockerels that are difficult to get rid of I think I need to learn to kill and eat my own chooks. I probably need a step by step plan and the guts to do it.

So after I have killed the chook (which I need to know the best and quickest way )I need to know:-

Do I gut or pluck first.
Best way to gut
Easiest way to pluck.

(I seem to remember when I was a child my auntie use to kill her own chooks and I remember her giving them the chop, hanging them up to drain and putting them in boiling water to make it easier to pluck, but I was only a small traumatised child at the time.)

Can someone help me with this gruesome information please?

Hi Country Lodge

When i was young i worked for inghams in newcastle, i know it was mainly done by machine, but like you said, give them the chop (with a sharp axe), hang them by their feet for the blood to come out and then you will need very hot water to dip them in so you can pluck them, then comes the gutting part (which was my job at the factory) thier bums used to be slit while hanging upside down and we would have to put our hands in and scoop out the insides all in one movement (the worst part was when the bowel was ruptured), there was also a technique that was used to pull out the crop from the side of the neck after the gutting part. Not a nice job i know, but it paid well..

Step by step...

1) Don't feed them the day you plan to do it...
2) Prepare area, You will need a chopping block and axe or knife and somewhere where you are not concerned if blood splatters, 2 garbage bags, or one bag and 5 or so sheets of butchers paper), A bucket of really hot water, bigger the chook the hotter the water, i.e. young bantam cockerels and quail are fine with hot water strait from tap, Ver small amount of lux flakes or detergent (pref) a bowl with cold water.
3) Catch Cockerel in most stressfree way (if wild I put in small cage i.e. carry cage, the night before
4) Take cockerel (will use this word for this purpose) and if you choose axe method - place his head on chopping block with his neck stretched as much as possible out along block, take firm grasp of axe and with one clean chop remove head (must be sharp). If you choose the Knife method then take cockerel's legs with wings firmly in left hand and grasp his head gently with the right head and pull down breaking neck (very difficult if cockerel is not real young or small - best for bantams only), once movement has ceased slit knife down throat length ways to bleed, or remove head for same.
5) For both methods hang cockerel for approx 5 - 15 minutes to allow blood to drain. (If space or location is a problem then I break neck, slit and drain in a garbage bag so that i can discard the blood with insides and feathers etc.
6) Now take the cockerel and place in hot or boiling water, containing detergent, depending on age, breed etc. Completely immerse although if feet are not wanted (as with most traditional Aust cuisine) then hold onto feet, use a blunt object to gently push cockerel under water, do this until all feathers are wet. Test wing or tail feather, if comes out easily is ready to pluck.
7) Remove from hot water and place on garbage bag or butchers paper, sit or stand, and pluck feathers against grain i.e. toward head. Generally it is easiest to start by pulling all the majoy feathers such as wing and tail feathers, then grasp clumps of other feathers until plucked clean.
Place meat ( ) on back and grasp knife in dominant hand. With other hand grasp foot of chicken firmly. At the top slice knife through the area between the joints (almost exactly where yellow skin meets pale skin) do this until you find the space between joints and snap foot back. Now slice the underside to take foot completely off, repeat same for other leg.
9) Slit skin down neck close to body and carefully pull skin away from around neck. You will see two "tubes" one is trachea - airway (rigid with rings), other is oesophagas - food tube (soft, sometimes not obvious to start with. Leave the trachea but separate it carefully from the skin and everything else, now separate the oesophagas and tie a knot in the end. Take knife and cut the actual neck separately and snap off. keep if you wish to eat or discard in second garbage bag.
10) Now go to poo hole. Slit a hole in skin just above both holes, cut until you are through the layer just under skin. Now carefully tear the skin so that you expose the cavity in with the intestines sit, make the whole large enought for your hand to fit. Place hand in side and along breast bone side and toward head, gently place your hand around inside and ease out of body cavity, making sure you stop and reposition hand each time bringing all indides at once. keep going until all that is attached is the "poohole". you will find that your neat little knot will have come with bundle but not trachea.
10) Hold the piece of bowel close to opening and carefully cut skin around hole. If some poo escapes I simply cut away the whole area around this hole Now discard insides unless you wish to kee heart and giblet (will not how to clean giblet a little later). Place heart if keeping in cold water with neck.
11) Next place hand inside cavity and gently feel for ribs, feel down ribs until you feel spongy soft tissue. Push fingers down agains ribs beteen these and the spongy tissue (lungs). Do this along both sides and all ribs to ensure they are loose and lungs should come free in a bundle (light pink and spongy looking), discard with insides. now go to neck area and grasp trachea close to body and remove, discard also.
12) Place chicken under cold running water and remove blood from inside and odd feathers that escaped first attempt. Once thoroughly clean, if you still have neat hole at poo end, move legs back and forth (free up), and then push through hole (looks like a real roast now!), and if desired use string suitable for baking and tie wings to side of body of chicken.
13) (Lucky last) Roast and serve - but must be left in fridge overnight prior to roasting to set, or put in freezer immediately and use as desired another time.

Hope this helps

p.s. Giblet's can be cleaned by slicing the side from the opening to giblet to the thin part on the other side, open up and you should have all stomach contents drop out (will be gravel, grass etc. I've even found gold before! and I'm not joking), then just pick at brown stuff until you find it starts to come away all at once like a skin on the inside. Once all brown stuff off, clean and cook however you choose. Mum used to make a curry out of the bits - heart, neck's and giblets.

hi county lodge axe is the best way to kill, not 100 pecent bout the rest wif pigeons(im still learing too) i just plucked,and cut of the brest fillets

Excellent post jo-chicken

Do you ever skin them? I've got my 'old bushy' way of doing it, but would really like to know the proper way if you happen to know?

cheers

Darren

Thanks Jo-chicken,

That is exactly what I was lookiing for. Some practical experience with an experienced chook person would also be a good thing so I can learn properly.

I appreciate all the trouble you have gone to to write all this down for me and I have copied and saved it and printed it for my to keep file.

This is a really good post. Perhaps we could make a sticky out of it as I looked there first before I posted my subject.

No probs, any time...

Darren, sometimes if the chicken is a young one, and I couldn't be bothers I just kill and pluck then cut off the meaty bits. Main thing is when you quarter, cut between the joints and snap, that way you don't get any bits of bone. Also can skin, bit like skinning a rabbit, same theory, use nail-less fingers to push between the skin and the membrane covering the meat!

Great thanx jo.

and when you've done that ,you put them in a large pot ,with fresh spinach,tomatoes,potatoes and onions, MMmmm Tastes better than the greazy stuff from the shops and heaps healthier

This is also a good article:

http://www.gatewaytovermont.com/thefarm/slaughter.htm